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Cultural differences in cross-cultural communication
The Importance of Cross-cultural Communication
The Importance of Cross-cultural Communication
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Culture Impact As the world is changing at an incredible pace (Kotter & Cohen, 2002b), the way leaders approach change varies widely (Black & Gregersen, 2008). No organization is immune from the impact of globalization. Organizations must increasingly cope with diverse cross-cultural employees, customers, suppliers, competitors, and creditors. In its infancy, a business culture reflects the characteristics of the organization’s most dominant personality, the leader (Bohl, 2015). The leader’s vision of what the business culture should be is often a cultural paradigm in their heads, based on their experiences in the culture in which they have grown up in (Schein, 1983). Culture is an abstraction, yet the forces that are created in social …show more content…
Understanding the impact of globalization on cross-culture communication is imperative for organizations seeking to create a competitive advantage in the global market. Regional, ethnic, and religious cultures account for differences with countries; ethnic and religious groups often transcend political country borders. These groups form minorities at the crossroads between the dominant culture of the nation and their own traditional group culture (Hofstede, et., al, 2010). An effective global leader, when crossing country and cultural borders a transformation should occur asking ourselves, who we are and how we see ourselves. Global businesses must understand how to communicate with employees and customers from different cultures in order to fulfill the organization’s mission and build value for stakeholders (McCall & Hollenbeck, 2002). To achieve goals and avoid cultural misunderstandings, leaders should and need to be culturally sensitive and promote creativity and motivation through flexible leadership. Cross-culture leaders should be culturally sensitive and promote creativity and motivation through flexible …show more content…
The first is cognitive constraints. Cognitive constraints are the frames of reference or world-views that provide a backdrop that all new information is compared to or inserted into. It is how people view the world based on their past experiences, such as education, area of origin, religion, and socioeconomic status. The second factor is behavior constraints. Each culture has its own rules about proper behavior, which affect verbal and nonverbal communication. This means, whether one looks the other person in the eye-or not; whether one says what one means overtly or talks around the issue; how close the people stand to each other when they are talking, all of these and many more are rules of politeness which differ from culture to culture. The third factor is emotional constraints. Different cultures regulate their display of emotion differently. Some cultures get very emotional when they are debating an issue. They yell, they cry, they exhibit their anger, fear, frustration, and other feelings openly. Other cultures try to keep their emotions hidden, exhibiting or sharing only the rational or factual aspects of the
The modern world has experienced tremendous changes, which have contributed to changes in people living in the global world. These changes have mainly been brought by globalization, which is a major phenomenon in the 21st Century. Leaders across various professions, businesses, and governments need to cope with globalization since it forces them to cross borders more often and communicate or conduct business with people from other cultures. This process involves developing necessary skills for working effectively in the modern complex world. Actually, the ability of these leaders to work effectively not only requires the development of essential skills but the application of leadership principles in the global work environment. In essence, leaders must develop their ability to apply leadership principles across culturally diverse workforce in today’s global work environment.
Constant technological and global changes create challenges that forces leaders to manage different cultures in different countries. People, goods, services, and ideas are moving today at greater speeds which mean our labor force is becoming more diverse and multicultural by the day. Effective leaders need to understand such global dynamics in order to successfully manage organizational cultures. The cultures of leaders and their core assumptions might be different from the values and assumptions of employees in a different country. Two managers working for the same global company might see things differently due to their backgrounds and cultural values. The different countries, in which the organization operates, will have different cultures depending on the social, economic, and political history of the country. Managing and understanding these differences need an effective cross-cultural thinking leader (Yukl, 2013). Some research questions that Yukl, 2013 suggests are: 1) how behavior differs across cultural values and for different countries? 2) How values and behaviors are influenced by personality across company and country? 3) What types of traits, skills, and experience are most useful to prepare a leader being assigned to a new country? 4) How does the fast-changing culture in developing countries affect and relate to
We all have something in common with our intercultural groups, but ultimately our different co-cultures make us into thinking in different ways. It is important to always ask questions to understand where others come from so we can better communicate with them. It also doesn’t hurt to mimic their nonverbal cues to ensure that you are not insulting them because of a different cultural background. Cultural bias’, they never get very far in life.
The workforce in the United States no longer consists of only Caucasian or American workers. According to the 2014 Foreign Summary Report from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/internatl/companies.shtml) there were 912 foreign companies registered and reporting with the SEC. Additionally, companies employ people from other countries locally as well as overseas and relocate or expand to other parts of the world due to globalization. All employees, whether from this country or another, have language and cultural differences that can cause misunderstanding and miscommunication among coworkers. In order to understand how other cultures communicate, we should learn about other cultures and the ways they communicate with each other. When all team members make an effort to understand each other better, a more cohesive team is formed. International
“Communicating can be a very complex and intricate process involving the exchange of messages between interactants, both verbally and nonverbally” (2013).When effectively communicating in a culturally diverse workplace; it is important to understand the people in the different culture may not communicate in the same manner as another would. Each cultur...
It was interesting to read about the cross-cultural communication and its impact on the healthcare outcomes and well-being for the clients. The author provided a good synopsis of the critical elements to improve cross-cultural communication.
In Hall’s article, “Context and Meaning” it is revealed to us the importance in cross cultural communication. Context can be defined as the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. Cross cultural communication is important because it creates diversity and understanding between the workers. In this essay the reader is provided with sufficient evidence to identify the staging of context with such importance to cross culture communication, teach about culture and joint cooperatives, and business transaction, and help create a diverse workforce.
Finally, the main symptom that will create the most problems would be the labor market laws and regulations.
Culture is not something that you carry in your DNA. It is not about genetics, it is about being born into a society with certain cultural characteristics. From the moment that you are born, you start learning about culture throughout the course of your life. You gain knowledge of culture from your parents, grandparents, friends, teachers in school and so on. Cultural characteristics refer to the elements that define individuals. Some of these characteristics consist of beliefs, values, norms and social practices. In the next paragraphs you will find a better definition of each cultural characteristic and how they influence verbal and non-verbal communication.
Have you ever experienced misunderstandings between someone with other cultural backgrounds that you were not aware of? In English class, we read an essay,“Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication” by Laray M. Barna. In the article, the author introduced the six stumbling blocks of intercultural communication; 1. Assumption of Similarities, 2. Language Differences, 3. Nonverbal Misinterpretations, 4. Tendency to Evaluate, 5. Stress, and 6. Culture Shock. 1. Assumption of Similarities is explaining that we should not be assuming everyone thinks in the same way only because we all have the same biological needs for food and shelter. Furthermore, beliefs and
In conclusion, Barna discusses the five stumbling blocks in cross-cultural, and I overall agree with the four stumbling blocks, which are the language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions
The term “culture” refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Cultures take a long time to develop. There are many things that establish identity give meaning to life, define what one becomes, and how one should behave.
With the rapid growth in globalization there are a number of firms who have taken their businesses abroad. Their challenge, cross cultural management and communication. An effective communication strategy begins first with understanding who the sender of the message is and who the receiver of the message is. Many companies have realized this and offer training in the different cultures to help better facilitate communication between leaders (Cross-Cultural Communication, mindtools.com). Without this basic understand between sender and receiver it can be very difficult for companies of multicultural to even begin to communicate. The second important understanding is that leaders must demand a cultural tolerance of acceptable behavior between cultures to facilitate effective communication (Cross-Cultural Communication, mindtools.com).
... its proper expressions, structure and grammar. Moreover, each language is linked to a specific dialect which is associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Moreover, cultural variations also exist in the rules for general discourse in oral communication. Similar to verbal communication, there are also variations in non-verbal communication between cultures. Gestures, facial expressions, sense of time and personal distance take different forms in different cultures. Furthermore, there is an infinite number of cultural diversities which are at the root of intercultural miscommunication. Variations in values , social relationships, religion, economy and politics consist of only a few of these diversities. These differences can be the source of ethnocentrism, if one becomes over patriotic in regards to one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism, is the concept which states that we tend to judge other cultures through our own. Ethnocentric behavior, can cause racism and chauvinism, as in the case of the Second World War. However, intercultural problems can be avoided if we all develop mindfulness, a sense of flexibility and seek information about the other culture.
Communicating with other cultures characterizes today’s business, classroom, and community. Hence, the art of knowing how to communicate with other cultures should be a workplace skill that is emphasized. Various authors have studied on intercultural communication; however, their studies have diverse perspectives and emphasis. The various views give a balanced approach to intercultural communication. This paper outlines the various facets that authors have on the importance of intercultural communication in the field of education, business, medicine and counseling. In addition, perspectives that various authors have on intercultural communicate are